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- This page refers to the type of snake. For an electronic adder, see Adder (electronics); for the Russian air-to-air missile that goes by the NATO reporting name "AA-12 Adder," see Vympel R-77, and for the Animals of Farthing Wood character see Adder (Farthing Wood)
Adder is another name for viper. Most snakes called adders belong to the family Viperidae (vipers), particularly to the subfamily Viperinae (pitless vipers). However, there are a few exceptions: despite its name, the death adder is not a viperid at all, but a member of the family Elapidae (cobras, coral snakes, etc.); and the totally harmless hognose snakes (genus Heterodon), members of the Colubridae family, are sometimes referred to as puff adders because of their threat display.
[edit] "Adders"
| Common name |
Scientific name |
Geographic range |
| European adder |
Vipera berus |
Europe and Asia |
| Death adder |
Acanthophis antarcticus |
Australia, New Guinea |
| Puff adder |
Bitis arietans |
Africa, southern Arabian Peninsula |
| Puff adders |
Bitis sp. |
Africa, southern Arabian Peninsula |
| Puff adder |
Heterodon sp. |
United States |
| Night adders |
Causus sp. |
Sub-Saharan Africa |
[edit] Etymology
The word was nædre in Old English, which developed into nadder or naddre; in the 14th century a nadder was, like a napron, reinterpreted as an adder. It appears with the generic meaning of serpent in the older forms of many Germanic languages, including Old High German natra and Gothic nadrs. It is thus used in the Old English version of the Christian Scriptures for the devil, the serpent of Genesis.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.